Comments on Everyone's Child
I agree that it is not that easy. My parents believed that if you raise a kid on health food, that's what the kid will naturally gravitate towards. When I was growing up, they fed me lots of vegetables and brown rice and such, and made a rule that I had to eat at least one piece of fruit a day. It didn't do a thing. I hated vegetables, brown rice, and fruit, and I still do.
Man, oh man. I think you did very well not to physically hurt anyone. This kind of BS just makes me crazy. Why why WHY does it have to target just fat kids? I mean, isn't a "healthy lifestyle" important for all kids? Oh wait, I forgot, you can totally tell that thin kids already have a healthy lifestyle 'cuz they're thin.
Exactly, Nicole. My children are obviously lazy and poorly fed because they are fat (Not to mention that I am a bad parent).
Zoe, I hear you, but in this day and age, if I don't try, I could actually be accused of child abuse.
This is terrible. Makes me glad we have the luxury of not having our kids in school, so we don't have to protect ourselves from the gov "protecting us from ourselves". I applaud you for addressing this head-on rather than just ignoring it and going on with your life. Maybe someone will learn something from you.
Thank you, Linda. I try! It just seems like it is only a drop in the bucket.... not making too much difference. Eventually the bucket fills... but it takes a long time.
Back in the 1950s, children got to hear over and over again that they had better get married (heterosexually of course) and start pumping out the babies as young as possible and be housewives only (if female) and square-jawed breadwinners only (if male), or society would apart at the seams.
So what happened to that generation of kids? Hippies. Feminists. Gay-rights-advocates. That's the good part. The bad: A whole rash of divorces and miserable married people who never knew they didn't have to conform-or-die. Lots of alcoholism, drug addiction, people suddenly snapping out of a clear blue sky in their 30s and running off to join the circus (or wev) because they couldn't STAND just being housewives or square-jawed male providers.
Bottom line, though, that's what happens when you push people to conform so hard that there can't help but be blowback. If they think they're going to get kids to love vegetables and exercise by ramming them down their throats and screaming "BE THIN OR DIE DIE DIE!!!!" they could not possibly be more mistaken.
It's so true. My husband was raised in a household where there was no TV and his diet consisted mostly of beans, rice, and fish (and he was a chunky kid anyway, genetics anyone?) and what did he do once he moved out of the house? Spent all of his free time watching TV and eating nothing but crap. In an effort to find a place of authenticity, people initially often go to the extremes ("rebel"). I suspect this is because they've been denied the ability and freedom to self-regulate for so long, that they *need* to do this in order to gain some perspective and experience.
As for the idea that kids eat what their parents eat... that's a nice myth, it really is, as it makes the parental responsibility part of the obesity "crisis" so tidy and simple. The truth is a tad more complex, having to do with individual wiring and chemical makeup, and psychological setting. My family practices "unfooding" -- we don't regulate our children's intake of food, nor do we make issues of the way their bodies look or the foods they enjoy eating. We provide access to nourishing (in both a psychological and physical sense) food. It turns out that we all have individual likes and dislikes, and that much of what we (the parents)like to eat, the kids aren't interested in and vice versa. I loathe mustard, ketchup, peanut butter, and milk; my kids love it. One child won't eat meat, while the rest of us happily devour it; one loves steamed broccoli, the other fresh tomatoes and lettuce from the garden. None of them will eat mushrooms, which I adore. Etc. The reason, I suspect, why most children like cheeseburgers is not because their parents have conditioned them to; it's because they are wired in such a way that that combination of protein and fat tastes good to them because it is what their bodies need.
And speaking of cheeseburgers, come on now, Frank, let's exercise a little critical thinking here. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about beef or cheese or bread or even mayonnaise (which is basically just vinegar and eggs.) A McDonald's frankenburger is not particularly healthy. And eating disorders (stuffing yourself with cheeseburgers because they're "bad") are unhealthy. Neither of those facts are relevant to the issue of children eating cheeseburgers. Food hysteria, anyone?
Oh, and paternalism is progressive? WHATever.
Great points on rebelling, Meowser & Linda. I wish we could practice unfooding, but Konal has medical needs that require limiting some foods, and completely banning others. It sucks, and creates struggle where I don't want there to be, but I always try to frame it in choices and solicit his suggestions in the categories he needs.
(*and Meowser commented on MY BLOG!!! Squeeeeeeeeee 
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